Results tagged ‘ Edwin Encarnacion ’
Hafner makes good on Girardi’s hunch
Yankees manager Joe Girardi knows that he has to be careful with Travis Hafner. Injuries have plagued the slugger in recent years. Sometimes a manager gets a hunch. Saturday was just that kind of day. The Blue Jays were starting a lefthander, J.A. Happ, but aware that the right-handed portion of the designated hitter platoon, Ben Francisco, is struggling (.103 in 29 at-bats) Girardi chose to give the lefty-swinging Hafner a rare start against a southpaw.
How it turned out was just downright beautiful. All Hafner did was drive in four runs as the Yankees turned back the Blue Jays again, 5-4, behind another gritty effort from CC Sabathia. This was like old times for Travis and CC, former teammates at Cleveland. It was another victory due in large part to the newcomers with the Yankees this year; in this case Hafner and Vernon Wells, who drove in the other Yankees run.
Just as was the case in recent years of the likes of Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Raul Ibanez and Andruws Jones, among others, who thrived with the Yankees in their twilight years, Hafner and Wells have found a fountain of youth in the Bronx.
“This is a great place to play,” Girardi said. “It’s a great clubhouse. There are great expectations. Guys feed off that.”
It was quite an afternoon. Sabathia fell into a 3-0 hole, but the Yankees helped him climb out of it so that he ended up pitching through eight innings and improving his record to 4-2 despite yet another game when his stuff was not top shelf.
“I was all over the place in the early innings,” Sabathia said. “They just missed some balls that I left out over the middle of the plate.”
“He competes, that’s what he does,” Girardi said of Sabathia. “He has not been as sharp in April, but he has four victories, so I am not going to complain.”
Newly thrust into the starting catcher role with Francisco Cervelli out for six weeks with a right hand fracture, Chris Stewart had a rough time of it in the fourth inning. A passed ball and an error helped the Blue Jays to a gift run that gave Toronto the 3-0 lead.
Sabathia, still searching for some velocity on a fastball that rarely topped 90 miles per hour, had an unusual number of fly-ball outs in the early innings. Nobody was catching the ball Jose Bautista hit to start the fourth inning, however. It darted into the left field stands for his seventh home run.
Edwin Encarnacion, who had five home runs in his previous four games, followed with a single and advanced to second on a groundout. Stewart’s passed ball put Encarnacion at third base. He tried to score on Brett Lawrie’s flyout to right field, but Ichiro Suzuki’s laser-beam throw to the plate beat Encarnacion. Plate umpire Jeff Kellogg was prepared to call Encarnacion out, but the ball was dropped by Stewart, a costly error.
Fortunately for the Yankees, Happ got careless with the lead as he began the bottom of the fourth by walking Wells and Kevin Youkilis, who was back in the lineup after missing six games due to back stiffness.
Hafner lowered the boom and brought the Yankees even with his sixth home run, a three-run shot to right-center. He had never faced Happ before, but Hafner was a welcome addition to the batting order.
Lawrie picked up the RBI he lost in the fourth two innings later when he lined a home run to right field that put Toronto back in front.
Not for long, though, as Hafner struck again in the seventh. Righthander Esmil Rogers took over at that point and gave up a one-out double to Robinson Cano, who nearly didn’t get to second base before a remarkably strong and accurate by Bautista from the right field warning track. Wells tied the score with a single to center.
The Yankees stayed out of the double play by sending Wells as Youkilis grounded out to third base. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons brought in another lefthander, Brett Cecil, to face Hafner, who tripled off the glove of center fielder Rajai Davis. In the top of the inning, Brett Gardner made a fence-slamming catch off a similar drive by Bautista. It was the 13th career triple for Hafner and his third over the past six years. This was the first time since 2007 that Hafner has had a triple and a stolen base in the same season.
“Probably tiring,” Hafner said about what it felt like getting to third base. “You want to get some quality at-bats against a lefthander once in a while. It would be nice to get some starts, but I also know that they have my best interests at heart.”
Wanting to stay away from Mariano Rivera, who pitched in three of the previous four games, Girardi used Joba Chamberlain out of the bullpen in the ninth. He was touched for a couple of one-out singles but eventually slammed the door for his fifth career save and first since Sept. 21, 2010 at St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Yankees are now 13-5 since opening the season 1-4, 8-1 in games decided by two or fewer runs, 3-0 in one-run games and 13-1 when holding opponents to four runs or less. In addition, the Yankees are creating distance from the disappointing Jays, who are 9-16 and six games behind the 14-9 Yankees in the American League East. Toronto’s 11-28 (.282) record at Yankee Stadium is the worst for any team that has played at least 30 games in any current major league park.
Yankees’ battery battered
Two innings after losing their starting catcher, Francisco Cervelli, to injury, the Yankees also lost their starting pitcher. Ivan Nova left the game after giving up a single to Rajai Davis, the Toronto designated hitter who was also responsible for Cervelli’s departure with a foul ball that struck the catcher in his right hand.
It was not immediately clear just what was wrong with Nova. He began the third inning by hitting Munenori Kawasaki with a pitch and then gave up a single up the middle to Davis. The ball was hit behind Nova and did not appear to touch him. It did hit the second base bag and went into center field, allowing Kawasaki to reach third base.
Nova was limping noticeably as he returned to the mound, prompting a visit from trainer Steve Donohue. Manager Joe Girardi wasted no time in bringing in another pitcher, David Phelps, who gave up a hit to his first batter, Colby Rasmus, that gave Toronto a 2-1 lead.
Edwin Encarnacion had led off the second inning with a home run in front of the second deck in left field, his sixth homer of the season and his fourth in four consecutive games. The Yankees tied the score in the bottom of the second but made the least of a bases-loaded, none-out situation by getting just one run as Eduardo Nunez grounded into a fielder’s choice before Lyle Overbay hit into a double play.
There was a fear on the Yankees’ part that Cervelli may have suffered a fracture. Austin Romine was rumored to have been removed from Triple A Scranton’s game after one at-bat. He could be summoned to take Cervelli’s place on the roster. Romine is batting .333 with one home run and four RBI in 42 at-bats for the International League affiliate.
Yanks trump Blue Jays in home runs
Nice weather has finally reached the area. You could tell the difference with all the home runs hit at Yankee Stadium Thursday night. Though it cooled off somewhat in the latter innings, a game time temperature of 65 degrees signaled the possibility that the ball would carry much better than in previous homestands when temperatures barely got out of the 40s.
Over the first four innings, five baseballs left the yard. Hiroki Kuroda, who handled the Blue Jays with ease last week at Toronto, was down quickly, 3-0, on a two-run home run in the first inning by Edwin Encarnacion and a solo shot in the second by Brett Lawrie. Encarnacion’s blow made up for a terrible series last week at Rogers Centre in which he was hitless in 12 at-bats.
But just as quickly, the Yankees struck back with the long ball against Mark Buehrle, a good sign for the team against a lefthander. Southpaws have been tough on the Yanks, particularly lately with Kevin Youkilis out of the lineup. He did not play again Thursday night because of continuing back stiffness.
Vernon Wells hit a towering drive over the center field wall leading off the second inning for his sixth home run, which tied him for the club lead. Temporarily, that is. Robinson Cano thrust the Yankees in front in the third inning with a three-run shot to right. Cano’s seventh home run this season was career No. 184, which tied him with Charlie Keller for 18th place on the Yankees’ all-time list. Next up in 17th place at 185 is Paul O’Neill.
Cano also moved up the Yankees’ career RBI list and into the top 10. His 732 RBI tied him with Elston Howard for 10th place. Give Cano credit. This was the time of year with all the injured Yankees that Cano might have felt pressure to do too much and chased bad pitches, but he has displayed patience and is off to a very productive start, batting .322 with seven homers and 17 RBI.
A lot of that has to do with the protection Cano has received in the lineup from Wells (.293, six home runs, 10 RBI) and Travis Hafner (.300, five home runs, 10 RBI), who was on the bench Thursday night with the Jays starting a lefty.
Francisco Cervelli continued the Yankees’ home run parade with a shot off the barrier in front of the left field bleachers. The catcher’s third home run of the season apparently upset Buehrle, who hit Cervelli with a pitch in his next at-bat. After yielding a single to the next batter, Ichiro Suzuki, Buehrle was taken out of the game and said something to Cervelli at third base as he headed for the dugout.
The Yankees are hopeful they can get the other Francisco, Ben, going. Hafner’s designated hitter partner has struggled. He got a hit with a bunt single that was not awarded until an umpire was overruled by one of his mates. First base umpire Chad Fairchild called Francisco out at first base on a bang-bang play. Replays indicated Encarnacion at first base may not have had control of the ball as Francisco hit the bag. Second base ump Jeff Kellogg, the crew chief, huddled the umpires together, and the call was reversed.
It was the proper call, but Blue Jays manager John Gibbons didn’t think so. He got ejected by Kellogg after a heated argument. The season has not gone the way Gibbons hoped back in spring training. The Jays, who had been picked in many preseason publications as the favorite in the American League East, are 9-14 and have lost three of four games to the Yankees.
Francisco was just thankful to be standing on a base instead of walking back to the dugout. For all of Gibbons’ screaming, the play was not involved in the scoring. Thanks to the weather in the early innings, this was a home run game, and despite the perception that the Yankees are weaker in the power department their 31 homers are the most in the league.
Nova could pitch his way out of rotation
Ivan Nova’s hopes of being in the Yankees’ rotation in the postseason were probably dashed Thursday night when he could not get through the fifth inning at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Of course, the Yankees have to get to the postseason first, which was not helped by their losing to the Blue Jays, 6-0.
Nova gave up four earned runs, six hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. He was wounded by a two-run home run by Brett Lawrie in the third inning and a two-run double by Edwin Encarnacion in the fifth. The extra-base hits raised the season total against Nova to 87, the most yielded by any pitcher in the majors this season and by any Yankees pitcher in their history. The previous club mark of 86 was set in 1989 by Andy Hawkins, but he pitched 38 more innings than Nova.
The struggling outing came on the heels of a start five days ago when Nova pitched only 2 1/3 innings against the Athletics at Yankee Stadium and allowed three earned runs and five hits. The righthander’s earned run average has bloated to 5.02. Over his past 11 starts, Nova is 2-5 with a 7.05 ERA. He has allowed 75 hits, including 11 home runs, in 60 innings over that stretch.
Toronto starter Brandon Morrow was in complete control in his seven innings as he got 13 outs in the infield to go with three strikeouts. Brad Lincoln and Darren Oliver supplied a scoreless inning apiece as the Yankees were shut out for the sixth time this year. Robinson Cano had three hits and Russell Martin two, but the rest of the batting order went 0-for-22.
The Yankees wasted an opportunity to gain ground in the American League East on the Orioles, who were not scheduled. The Yankees’ lead over Baltimore is down to one game again with six games remaining for each team. The Blue Jays are doing a good job of playing spoiler. Toronto split a four-game series with the Orioles before beginning a four-game set against the Yanks with a victory.
With the race as close as it is, the Yankees cannot speak openly about postseason play. If they do qualify for the playoffs, the Yanks are likely to go with a four-man rotation. Nova’s recent starts would appear to put him behind CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte.
Yanks lose some ground on 4-3 trip
CC Sabathia’s absence has already been felt by the Yankees. With David Phelps needed to take Sabathia’s turn in the rotation Monday night when the Yankees open a four-game set against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium, the righthander could not be called on for long relief duty Sunday at Toronto.
Phil Hughes had his second straight horrid outing in giving up seven runs and nine hits in four innings. Ryota Igarashi, recalled from Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to help in the bullpen, threw gas on the fire with a three-run fifth inning as the Blue Jays widened their lead to 10-1. The Yankees cut it to 10-7 with three runs apiece in the sixth and seventh, but they could not get any closer in dropping the finale to finish the Great Lakes trip to Detroit and Toronto at 4-3.
That is not bad considering the Yankees lost the first two games of the trek in Motown. Frankly, however, Sunday’s loss was a bit embarrassing. Edwin Encarnacion, who clocked his 30th home run, was the only player in the Jays lineup who was in Toronto’s opening day batting order. The Jays were without Jose Bautista, Colby Rasmus, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, J.P. Arencibia, Brett Lawrie and Adam Lind yet still managed to scorch the Yankees for 14 hits in ending a six-game losing streak and halting the Bombers’ four-game winning streak.
Despite the winning record on the trip, the Yankees lost 1 ½ games in the American League East standings over the past week. Their lead in the division is down to five games over second-place Tampa Bay, which has won six games in a row, and 5 ½ over third-place Baltimore.
Encarnacion and Moises Sierra had three hits apiece, but the guy who broke the Yankees’ back was left fielder Rajai Davis, who drove in five runs with two doubles and stole a run with a sensational, over-the-wall catch of a potential home run by Casey McGehee in the seventh inning.
The Yankees had only one hit over the first four innings against Jays starter J.A. Happ and were nine runs behind before their bats started to make some noise. Doubles by Andruw Jones and McGehee got the Yankees on the board in the fifth. The next inning, Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter homered to account for three runs. Doubles by Jayson Nix and Jeter and a single by Nick Swisher netted the Yanks three more runs in the seventh.
Jeter’s home run was his ninth of the season and first in 73 at-bats since July 25. It was a strong trip for the Captain, who batted .382 with two doubles, one home run, four RBI and five runs in 34 at-bats and is now hitting .318, the highest his average has been since June 15 when it was at .321.
Unforruntately, Hughes put them in a big hole and Igarashi further buried them. It was a poor trip for Hughes, who also failed to go five innings in his previous start Aug. 7 at Detroit. In his two starts on the trip, both losses, Hughes allowed 11 earned runs and 17 hits in 8 1/3 innings as his ERA grew from 3.96 to 4.44.
The starters need to step it up over the next two weeks while Sabathia recovers from left elbow soreness. One outstanding quality the Yankees have shown this season has been to overcome injuries – outfielders Raul Ibanez and Jones for Brett Gardner, closer Rafael Soriano for Mariano Rivera, reliever Cody Eppley for Joba Chamberlain, starting pitcher Freddy Garcia for Andy Pettitte, and third basemen Eric Chavez, McGehee and Nix for Alex Rodriguez. The starters did a good job the previous time CC was disabled, and they need to do so again.
Jays go bombs away on Kuroda
The Blue Jays beat the Yankees at their own game Wednesday night, that is, with the long ball. The Jays cranked four home runs – three off Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda – that accounted for all but one of Toronto’s runs in its 8-1 victory.
That is usually the way the Yankees win games, by going deep against opposing pitchers. They have not homered in eight games this year and have lost each of them. It is getting to the point that if the Yankees don’t homer they don’t score. Over the past four games, three of them losses, the Yankees have had only three hits in 33 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They are .240 hitters in clutch situations over the whole season.
With Derek Jeter out of a lineup that is already without disabled catalyst Brett Gardner, the Yankees are in a station-to-station rut. They are stranding runners at a regular rate. Wednesday night’s game might not have been the best example of what has affected them lately because the way Kuroda was giving up bombs there was very little chance of the Yankees coming back.
The Japanese righthander, who seems to follow good efforts with bad ones, gave up a two-run homer to J.P. Arencibia, a three-run shot to Edwin Encarnacion and a lazar of a solo shot to Jose Bautista in a five-plus inning stint in which Kuroda yielded seven earned runs and eight hits and watched his ERA bloat to 4.50.
Kelly Johnson added a fourth home run with a solo drive off reliever Clay Rapada in the seventh. The Blue Jays ended a three-game losing streak and at 20-18 are only a half-game behind the 20-17 Yankees. Jays starter Kyle Drabek also put an end to a personal four-game losing streak and beat the Yankees for the first time. The son of 1990 National League Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek allowed more walks (4) than hits (3) in a strong seven innings.
Two of the Yankees’ hits were milestones. Robinson Cano got his 300th career double in the sixth and scored the Yankees’ lone run on a single by Mark Teixeira, which was his 1,500th career hit. Cano had an up-and-down game in the field. He turned a stylish double play in the eighth but botched a potential double play in the second and made an error in the seventh.
The American League East is bound to be a real dogfight this year. It is time for the Yankees to start growling.
Extended innings and extended rallies
It won’t show up as an error in the boxscore, but it was a misplay nevertheless for Robinson Cano that proved very costly for the Yankees in the second inning.
The Yankees appeared to have a sure double play when Brett Lawrie, batting with none out and a runner on first base, hit a bouncer to shortstop Jayson Nix, who flipped the ball to Cano at second base. As he came off the bag, however, Cano lost control of the ball and dropped it losing a shot at the DP.
Official scorers cannot charge a player with an error in that instance because a double play may not be assumed. Regardless of that dictum, it is missed out for a pitcher. Hiroki Kuroda got the second out with a strikeout of Colby Rasmus as Lawrie stole second base. If not for the Cano flub, the inning would have been over. Kuroda had to face another batter, J.P. Arencibia, who crushed a 3-2 slider to left field for a two-run home run.
Kuroda gave up an even longer home run the next inning, a three-run shot to straightaway center by Edwin Encarnacion, his 13th. Kuroda thought he was out of that inning also, but a 3-2 sinker to Jose Bautista, the hitter in front of Encarnacion, was ruled a ball for a walk that extended the inning.
How weird was it to see a Yankees lineup without Derek Jeter in it? The Captain got a night off as the Yankees are amid a stretch of games 16 days in a row. Nix, whose contract was purchased from Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre May 3 to replace Eduardo Nunez as the Yanks’ utility man and who played for the Blue Jays last year, started at shortstop. Taking DJ’s place in the leadoff spot was Curtis Granderson. It is not too often that you see a team’s leading home run hitter at the very top of the batting order.
The starting shortstop for Toronto was 11-time Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel, who is 45 years old. There’s a good example that Jeter can use against critics who believe he must switch positions some day. It was the first start this year for Vizquel, who has played in two games at shortstop, two at second base, one at first base and one in left field.
A-Rod tested early in return
It didn’t take Alex Rodriguez long to test his sprained left thumb that kept him out of the lineup the previous five games and seven of the past 11. Batting third in the order with Mark Teixeira’s right knee still hurting, Rodriguez swung the bat in the first inning Saturday for the Yankees and lined a single to right field.
Unfortunately, the ball was struck so hard to a charging Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays that Brett Gardner, who was on second base after a walk and a stolen base, could not score. Robinson Cano grounded into a double play to kill the rally.
That A-Rod did not wince or shake his hand after the hit were good signs. It was while swinging the bat that the thumb bothered him most and forced him out of the three-game series in Boston. Alex first jammed the thumb Aug. 23 diving for a ground ball at Oakland and aggravated it a week later in Baltimore.
Rodriguez got to test the thumb right away in the field as well. He dived to his left for a grounder by Edwin Encarnacion in the second inning, recovered and made a strong throw, but it was too late to first base to prevent him from getting a hit. Ecarnacion eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly.
When Encarnacion batted again in the third, he caused another Yankees fielder to leave his feet. Andruw Jones, playing right field as Nick Swisher was spelling Teixeira at first base, tumbled into the stands along the foul line trying to catch a foul ball. He emerged with some scrapes but kept on playing.
The Yankees have certainly done a good job in A-Rod’s absence this season. In the 52 games he has not played, the Yankees have a 34-18 record, a .654 winning percentage that is higher than the American League-leading winning percentage of .610 that they took into Saturday’s game.
Many collaborators in Hughes’ first victory
It was not surprising that Derek Jeter did not play Sunday. With all eight games on the Yankees’ current trip to be played on artificial turf, manager Joe Girardi was wise to keep the Captain off the carpet at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The Yanks move on to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., for a four-game set against the Rays starting Monday night, so expect Jeter to get a night off in that series as well.
DJ’s replacements did fine in his absence as the Yankees gained a split of the series against the Blue Jays with a 7-2 victory that got Phil Hughes his first winning decision of the season. Splits of four-game series always look positive after a team has lost the first two games, which is what happened to the Yankees.
Eduardo Nunez played errorless ball at shortstop and contributed a keep-the-line-moving single in the Yankees’ four-run fourth inning off Carlos Villanueva that sort of broke the game open. Nunez has played third base while Alex Rodriguez (right knee arthroscopic surgery) is on the disabled list. Ramiro Pena played third Sunday and drove in a run with a fly ball in the fourth.
The big hit of that inning was a two-run double by Curtis Granderson, who added a third RBI in the ninth to raise his season total to 68 taking over the club lead from Mark Teixeira, who has 66.
In Jeter’s leadoff spot was Brett Gardner, who finished off a terrific series by reaching base four times with three singles and a walk, stealing two bases and scoring three runs. Gardner has 10-for-16 (.625) on the trip with three doubles, three stolen bases and five runs. He has raised his season batting average from .265 to .286.
Among the more satisfying aspects of the Yankees’ victories Saturday and Sunday was that they did not rely on the long ball as none of their 21 hits in the two games was a home run.
Hughes resembled more the pitcher that won 18 games last year than the one who struggled in April and landed on the DL due to a dead arm. “A big step forward” was how Girardi described the outing by Hughes, who gave up two runs, four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings. The righthander had zip on his fastball and break on his curve. His next start will be on regular rest, which will be yet another test.
One of the weirdest defensive alignments occurred in the ninth inning against Teixeira, who sees the shift used against him many times when batting left-handed. Blue Jays manager John Farrell deployed a quirk to the maneuver by having third baseman Edwin Encarnacion hold the runner, Granderson, on at first base while first baseman Adam Lind played back. It had no effect on the game as Tex flied out to left field.
Jack O'Connell
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